11 Homeless People Who Became Rich And Famous

Oscar winner Halle Berry once stayed in a homeless shelter in her early twenties

 

When she first moved to Chicago to become an actress, Berry ran out of money and her mother decided the best thing would not be to send her daughter money.

During these struggling times, the actress admits to staying in a homeless shelter.

In an interview with Star Pulse, the actress said:

"It taught me how to take care of myself and that I could live through any situation, even if it meant going to a shelter for a small stint, or living within my means, which were meager. I became a person who knows that I will always make my own way."

 

Jim Carrey once lived out of a VW camper van and in a tent on his sister's front lawn

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Carrey said it was during these tough financial times growing up when he developed a sense of humor.

Yahoo! reported that the comedian dropped out of high school and lived in a VW bus with his family parked in different places throughout Canada. They eventually moved into a tent on his older sister's lawn and parked the van in the driveway.

 

The co-founder of Canada's largest specialty chain of coffee shops was once homeless because of a drinking problem

 

While he was in his early 20s, Frank O'Dea was panhandling and living on the streets, according to John Demont at The Chronicle Herald.

That was, until he and his business partner opened Second Cup, which is the largest specialty coffee chain in Canada today with 360 locations.

Personal finance guru Suze Orman is now worth approximately $25 million, but she lived out of her van for four months in 1973

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When she first moved to Berkeley, California, Orman couldn't afford to move out of her van — today she owns about $7 million worth in real estate, reported msn.com

The well-known Emmy-winning financial advisor has also published numerous New York Times bestsellers.

After being fired, Jewel was homeless for about a month and almost died in a parking lot

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Before becoming the multi-platinum singer Jewel, she lived on the streets after losing her job. In an interview with Adam on Showbizspy, the singer said:

“I ended up homeless because my boss propositioned me and when I wouldn’t sleep with him he didn’t give me my paycheck,” she said.

“I got kicked out of where I was living and my rent was due that next day.

“I thought ‘Well, I’ll live in my car for a minute… get back on my feet,’ but I had bad kidneys and I never could hold down another job because I got sick so often. I didn’t have insurance and ended up almost dying in the parking lot of an emergency room because they wouldn’t admit me because I didn’t have insurance.

“I ended up homeless for about a month and I went back to singing.”

Daniel Craig, or "James Bond," once had to sleep on park benches in London

 

He's now got several critically-acclaimed movies on his resume, but Hollyscoop reported that the "007" actor used to sleep on park benches as a struggling actor.

Chris Gardner inspired the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness" and was homeless with a young son while he was in a finance training program

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Aside from a movie based on his life starring Will Smith, Gardner also has two New York Times bestselling books under his belt: his autobiography "The Pursuit of Happyness" and "Start Where You Are: Life Lessons in Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be."

But before his story was shared with the world, Gardner was living on the streets with his young son. At the time, he was trying to pursue a career in finance despite not having any experience in it, or even a college degree. He received a spot on the Dean Witter Reynolds training program, but couldn't afford to live off of the small salary, and his wife eventually left.

He is also a motivational speaker and CEO of Gardner Rich LLC with offices in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco.

According to his Web site, Gardner's childhood was "marked by poverty, domestic violence, alcoholism, sexual abuse and family illiteracy."

Michael Oher's story of homelessness and struggle in 'The Blind Side' was inspirational to the world

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During his childhood and teenaged years, Oher was living on the streets while his crack-addicted mother lived in public housing, reported NPR. 

He was eventually taken in to live with a wealthy family, played college football at the University of Mississippi and drafted into the NFL in 2009 for the Baltimore Ravens.

His inspirational story was turned into Michael Lewis's 2006 book "The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game" and the movie "The Blind Side."

Singer Ella Fitzgerald was abused, had mafia ties and was homeless before becoming the 'Queen of Jazz'

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She would go on to sing for President Ronald Reagan in 1981, but before becoming "arguably the finest female jazz singer of all time," Fitzgerald was abused by her stepfather when her mother died at a young age, according to PoemHunter.com. 

She worked with the mafia for some time before the police put her in a school for girls.

Fitzgerald ran away from there and was homeless until debuting at the Apollo Theater in 1934. Her voice quickly won her fame and throughout her career, she won 13 Grammy Awards and received medals from both President Reagan and George H. W. Bush.

She died in 1996, but her face appeared on a United States postal stamp in 2007.

 

Before becoming the greatest magician, Harry Houdini ran away from home at the age of 12 and begged on the streets for coins

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At a young age, Houdini knew he wanted to be a magician and ran away from home by hopping a freight car, according to Appleton Public Library.

He ended up in Missouri.

A few years later, he moved to New York City with his father, but they were so poor Houdini continued to panhandle on the streets.

He began his professional career at 17.

Before the age of 10, Charlie Chaplin had to figure out how to make a living on the streets of London

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After the early death of his father, Chaplin's mother was put in a mental hospital and the young boy and his brother had to try to make a living by themselves, according to his Web site. 

As both his parents were in show business, Chaplin and his brother decided to follow suit. Today, he's known as one of the greatest actors during the silent film era.

Nokia Is Going Down!

It’s official, Nokia is going down. The one time telecom giant, who had its reputed products spread over 50 countries, has announced a cut of 10,000 jobs, and a shutdown of 3 facilities, by the end of 2013.



The Finnish Telecom Manufacturers three senior executives will also be departing from the company. The closing facilities include a research center, a factory in Germany, Canada and in its home land Finland.

The company had issued a warning to investors that its loss was likely to be greater in the second quarter of this year. It had posted a loss of $1.2 billion in the first quarter of 2012. Nokia also said the negative effects of its transition to a Windows-based Smartphone business would continue into the third quarter.

Once an undisputed leader in the mobile phone market, Nokia lose its charm over the years to Apple, Samsung and other handset makers based on Android.

The company, which announced its partnership with Microsoft in 2011 for making a range of Windows based Smartphones has since then saw a steep decline of sales and profit loss, mainly due to people and operators avoiding Nokia’s own Symbian based devices.
Nokia also announced the sale of its luxury handset business, Vertu to a European firm. With its streamlining efforts, the company is planning to save €1.6 billion by the end of 2013.

“These planned reductions are a difficult consequence of the intended actions we believe we must take to ensure Nokia’s long-term competitive strength,” said Stephen Elop, the Nokia chief executive and a former Microsoft executive. “We do not make plans that may impact our employees lightly, and as a company we will work tirelessly to ensure that those at risk are offered the support, options and advice necessary to find new opportunities.”

Last week, rumors about a Microsoft takeover had made Nokia’s sinking shares rose six percent.

 
“The cost savings and job cuts were intended to return Nokia to profitability “as soon as possible,” Elop said.

7 Houses You Won't Believe People Actually Live In

There are many houses around the globe with splendid architecture that are sure to impress you in a big way. Although traditional architecture of historical buildings has undoubtedly been creating an everlasting impact on generations but the marvel of contemporary architecture is no less which speaks about the imagination of people that is just not limited to innovations in science and technology.
Below is the list of some houses, which is like see it to believe it.
1) Just Room Enough:
This cute little house ‘Just Room Enough’ is situated on the St. Lawrence River, between Canada and America. This house is built on an island exactly the same size of the house. The house ‘Just Room Enough’ was purchased by the Sizeland family back in the year 1950s. The family brought this piece of land hoping to stay away from the turmoil of everyday day life. Surprisingly, the island became a tourist attraction due to the uniqueness of the house, reports Eric Yosomono, Mike Cooney in Cracked.com.

2) House between two stones:
This crazy looking house is situated in Portugal in the Fafe Mountains. The house is built in between two huge stones, which is connected with a concrete mix. The construction is said to have taken inspiration from the American Flintstones cartoon. The house looks pre-historic and has some traditional features like front door, windows and roof. Thousands of tourists are attracted towards this house each year. There isn't much detail regarding the designer and year of construction.
3) Extreme Tree-house:
This tree house is just one example of the typical house used by the Korowai tribe of New Guinea, who were totally detached from the outside world and had no idea about the existing world until 1970.  Normally people build tree houses 10 feet above the ground but, these Korowai tribes build their real tree houses 165 feet above the ground. They build such houses to avoid predators, floods and ant swarms. You can imagine a tree house up in air just looks outstanding and provides breathtaking views.

4) Sidewalk Egg House:
Instead of paying high rents, Dai Haifei, a 24 year-old architect in Beijing built an egg shape house for himself. This six-foot tall, solar-powered ‘Egg House’ is made up of bamboo, wood and grass seeds, which grows in the natural environment and is cold-proof. This house costs $964 and can accommodate a bed, a water tank and a night table. This small egg shaped house actually fits on the sidewalks.
5) Flintstone House:
The Flintstone house is located in Hillsborough, California, which was designed by William Nicholson in the year 1976.The building is a series of domes which looks attractive and unusual. The building was constructed forming a wire mesh over aeronautical balloons which were overblown and then concrete was sprayed on them. Earlier it had an off-white colour, but later on in the mid-80's, it was re-painted with deep-orange colour.
6) Ultramodern Hobbit House:
This ultra modern hobbit house is located in the side of a hill in Switzerland. This hobbit house was designed by a Dutch architecture firm and it looks like the house sunk into the mountain. A huge patio is a distinctive feature of the house, which opens up to provide an elliptical view of the mountains.
7) Free Spirit House:
Free spirit houses are built in British Columbia and Canada, which was invented and manufactured by Tom Chudleigh. The houses are in the shape of sphere which is made of wood and it hangs from trees or cliffs suspended from a rope. One will have to make use of spiral stairway to reach this beautiful house, which looks like a fruit hanging from the tree. The house is mainly meant for grown-ups.